News

When foreigners think about Canadian wine (which, admittedly, is rare), they usually think of icewine. No wonder: It's got "ice" in the name, it's sweet and sticky like maple syrup, and it pervades duty-free shops just like those other classic Canadian mementoes, Roots caps and du Maurier cigarettes. But if ever our mainstream table wines seemed poised for a breakout year, this has got to be it. Last July—in a first not just for Canada but for North America—a British Columbia red won the Rosemount Estate Trophy for best shiraz/syrah at the International Wine and Spirits Competition in London, England. The wine? Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate Proprietors' Grand Reserve Shiraz 2004. It was the oenological equivalent of Canada upsetting Australia at Aussie-rules football.

And now the Canadian industry can boast of another badge: its very own atlas. Every great wine-producing country has its official map; now, we have The Wine Atlas of Canada, a handsome, small-format (hey, it's humbly Canadian) coffee-table book published this month by Random House Canada. Written by Tony Aspler, the veteran wine critic, consultant and author of the first book on Canadian wine (1982's Vintage Canada), the Atlas is a combination wine course, etiquette manual and virtual tasting tour through the world's most underrated grape-scape. Along the way, Aspler profiles cowboys like Anthony von Mandl of B.C.'s grandiose Mission Hill Winery, who built his fortune on Mike's Hard Lemonade before realizing his nobler calling with the grape, and feisty little guys like Hans Christian Jost of Jost Vineyards in Nova Scotia. Most inspiring, however, are the numerous spotlights on emerging mavericks, such as Norman Hardie in Eastern Ontario, who has worked in Burgundy and South Africa, and is now applying farmer-style ingenuity to the fruit of the vine. (He ferments his impressive chardonnays and pinot noirs in horizontal milk tanks to extract maximum flavour from grape and yeast solids.) In another upcoming region, Vancouver Island, Aspler introduces Giordano Venturi and Marilyn Schulze of Venturi-Schulze. As iconoclastic as they are private, the pair decided as far back as 1996 to switch from corks to beer-bottle caps—long before today's widespread embrace of screw caps—as an unpretentious, made-in-Canada solution to the widespread problem of cork taint.

If the Atlas has a shortcoming, it's not in effort or execution; it's in the timing. Aspler sings the praises of Jackson-Triggs's Bruce Nicholson, whose trophy case "must resemble Wayne Gretzky's." But we'll have to wait for the revised edition for a mention of his "Stanley Cup" achievement, that globe-conquering 2004 shiraz. Likewise, we'll have to wait for a post-mortem on the most significant event to rock the Canadian wine industry: last June's surprise takeover of Vincor International Inc.—owner of Jackson-Triggs, Inniskillin and other labels—by U.S. giant Constellation Brands. Which brings us to another way we know that our wines have finally arrived: The Americans are invading.

Nk'Mip Cellars, Okanagan Valley, B.C.
North America's first winery that is owned and operated by aboriginals boasts an excellent riesling and reserve merlot

Herder Winery & Vineyards, Similkameen Valley, B.C.
Co-founded by Lawrence Herder, who cut his teeth at B.R. Cohn in Sonoma, this winery makes nice pinot gris and chardonnay from bought grapes. But just wait till his own vines come on stream in a couple of years

Closson Chase Winery, Prince Edward County, Ont.
With founders that include mini-movie-moguls Seaton McLean and Michael MacMillan, this pinot noir/ chardonnay producer promises to set the standard for this much-ballyhooed new wine region

Norman Hardie Winery, Prince Edward County, Ont.
Already turning out a top-class chardonnay and very good pinot noir, this label combines big buzz with tangible promise